Analysing Website Choice and Consumer Loyalty: the Case of Book and CD Markets

This paper estimates the relationship between the choice of website and the characteristics of the individual making this choice. What explain consumer website choice and is this consumer loyal to the same website? This paper approaches this question by modelling individual’s website choice for buying book and CD online among a set of alternatives within a period of six months (from July 1 to December 31 2002). I find that individuals respond strongly to well-known, branded online retailers and that some individual demographics explain the website choice and the loyalty behaviour. However, the results point to a not switching effect online and rules out there is a consumer loyalty.